The invention relates to a method for systematically assessing the quality of medical appliances of a generic type that are in operation.
Manufacturers of medical appliances are generally interested in designing the appliances they manufacture to be of high quality in order to ensure trouble-free operation. In particular, systematic quality problems such as, for example, components of a defective charge that are used for a plurality of medical appliances, or underdimensioned modules, can lead to failures of a plurality of medical appliances. It is true that manufacturers assess individual protocols prepared, for example, by a service technician during maintenance or repair of a medical appliance. However, systematic quality problems can be identified only slowly and therefore unsatisfactorily with the aid of such a method.
Patent DE 41 37 742 A1 discloses a method for setting up a database in a spinning mill or a similar plant. Each time that maintenance work is carried out on spinning machines in the spinning mill, maintenance data determined on the basis of the maintenance work are recorded in a portable terminal and then transmitted to a processing computer. A database for the spinning machines is thereby set up automatically.
A monitoring system for presses having an electronic processor is disclosed in patent DE 197 49 002 A1. The monitoring system monitors functions and parameters of the press separately from the actual control of the press. A sensor connected to the processor measures the functions and parameters that are to be monitored. The processor subsequently processes signals measured by the sensor and transmits the processed signals to a remote unit via a communication network.
It is therefore the object of the invention to specify a method which permits preconditions for fast detection of systematic quality problems in medical appliances.
The object of the invention is achieved by means of a method for systematically assessing the quality of medical appliances of a generic type that are in operation, having the following method steps:
a) acquiring data that are generated during a regular inspection of the medical appliances at the site of the medical appliances,
b) transmitting the data to a central database,
c) assigning the transmitted data to modules in the medical appliances, and
d) storing the data in collective files, assigned to the modules in the medical appliances, of the central database on the basis of the assignment to the modules in the medical appliance.
Thus, according to the invention data from medical appliances of a generic type are acquired during a regular inspection of the medical appliances. It is understood by generic type that the inspected medical appliances are appliances of the same, or at least a similar, type. In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, regular inspection can be, for example, a regular maintenance, a regular calibration measurement and/or a regular quality measurement. As a rule, medical appliances are required by statute to be maintained at regular intervals, for example, by a service technician, in order to avoid endangering persons examined with the aid of the medical appliances. Regular calibration measurements are carried out in the case of computer tomographs, for example, in order to ensure a high quality of the images produced with the aid of the computer tomographs. Quality measurements carried out regularly on magnetic resonance apparatuses fulfill a similar purpose. In this case, the data are acquired, for example, by the service technician during maintenance, or by an operator of the medical appliance in the course of the calibration or quality measurement. The data comprise, for example, information on the quality of an image produced with the aid of a medical appliance, data on a possibly altered adjustment of the medical appliance, defective modules that have therefore been replaced etc. These data are subsequently transmitted to the central database and evaluated by the evaluation device. Since the evaluation device evaluates not only the data of a medical appliance, but also data from a plurality of medical appliances of a generic type, systematic quality problems, that is to say quality problems that affect not only an individual medical appliance, but also many medical appliances of the generic type, can be identified quickly and reliably. Thereupon, on the basis of the evaluation the manufacturer can, for example, develop anew specifically specified modules in order to replace underdimensioned modules with the newly developed modules, or he can replace modules that comprise components of a defective charge by modules having high-quality components. A precondition for trouble-free operation of the medical appliances is thereby reliably set up.
The method according to the invention can be executed in a particularly practical fashion when, in accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the data are acquired by computers in the medical appliances, because there is then no need for the service technician to connect any external computer, for example a laptop, to the medical appliance while servicing it, or the quality or calibration measurement can be carried out automatically.
In a particularly preferred variant of the invention, it is provided that the data are transmitted with the aid of an information transmission network to which the medical appliances and the database can be connected. According to one variant of the invention, such an information transmission network can be a telephone network, the Internet, an Intranet or an Extranet. An Extranet is a network in the case of which at least parts of various Intranets are interconnected.
The method can be executed in a particularly timesaving and simple way when, according to a further embodiment of the invention, the computers of the medical appliances transmit the data to the database automatically.
In accordance with a further variant of the invention, the medical appliances are magnetic resonance apparatuses, computer tomographs, lithotripters, ultrasonic appliances or X-ray machines.
In order for a manufacturer, a marketing organization or a sales organization of the medical appliances to have a quick overview of the quality of medical appliances supplied, it is provided in accordance with a further variant of the invention that the database is assigned to a manufacturer, a marketing organization or a sales organization of the medical appliances.